Waiting for trains: Adelaide commuters live in hope

The news that global financial unrest will see some infrastructure projects delayed or shelved in South Australia is unlikely to please commuters who use Adelaide's ageing rail system.

While it is not yet clear if there will be any impact on plans to modernise and electrify the rail fleet, it is clear to commuters in both Adelaide's north and the south that the status quo is inadequate.

"We've got the oldest diesel fleet in Australia. We've got trains that you can't see out the windows and then when you do get on the train you've had seats taken out so you have to stand," he said.

Commuter Peter Amey lives at Freeling and catches the Gawler train to the city each day.

He says it runs late almost every morning.

"Probably five minutes late but more likely to be like eight to 10 minutes late and that's nearly every journey," he said.

In 2005, Transadelaide predicted that the Gawler line would reach its maximum capacity this year, with the other Adelaide lines not far behind.

Mr McFetridge says the Government should have done more to avert problems.

"The Government was given information years ago about the predictions for congestion and when we'd be at capacity," he said.

"We've reached capacity, we're over capacity.

"The Government's answer is to pull the seats out but you've still got thousands of commuters having to squash into trains every day. It's just not good enough."

Standing room only

As a rail traveller, Mr Amey sees the problems daily.

"Last night I caught a train which wasn't peak hour and it was only two carriages and it was all the way to Gawler central and when we left it was 50 people standing in the carriage, just in our carriage, so there was probably 50 people in the other carriage as well and it was standing room only basically to Smithfield."

Mr Amey says safety is also a problem.

"I've had a rock thrown at a window that I was sitting next to and the window shattered and I got covered in glass dust," he said.

"I think generally because the customer service assistants aren't allowed to move through the train any more, I think that's led to a lot of anti-social behaviour and there's a lot of swearing and drinking of alcohol and things like that go on that didn't occur before."

In the south, Aldinga resident and Onkaparinga councillor Yvonne Wenham is also well aware of the transport problems.

"I'd been listening to comments from people in the community and people saying 'You don't know what it's like to live like this' so I thought 'Hmm, I'll put it to the test, see what it's like'," she said.

"And around that same time the State Government came out with some statements saying that the southern areas were adequately serviced with public transport so I thought 'Hmm that's a bit at odds with what the community's saying."

Ms Wenham and her family left their car in the garage and caught public transport for two weeks.

She says life for those reliant on Adelaide public transport is a lot harder than she imagined.

"I was challenged in ways that I didn't think I'd be challenged and challenged in a way that challenged me as a person, challenged our family and our dynamics," she said.

"Our ability to connect with other people, socialise and interact. We became socially isolated. We couldn't connect with family and friends. Our kids couldn't play sport, our whole lifestyle was completely altered."

Oaklands problems

Earlier this year, the Oaklands interchange opened in Adelaide's southern suburbs.

Independent MP Kris Hanna says it has been plagued with problems.

"I've had a number of phone calls to the office, especially during the winters here, but people are increasingly frustrated so I'm still bumping into people all the time who are saying 'Why haven't we got timetables yet? Why isn't there anything that announces when the next train is at Oaklands station, because it's a major station, it's a new station, people expect more than that," he said.

Mr Hanna says the station's toilets and ticket office seldom open, there is too little car parking, there are no bike racks, no timetables and there is little protection from the wind.

"I've raised these issues in parliament so the minister is very well aware of them," he said.

"Frankly I don't know how he can go on claiming that they've got a great railway station when it has all these things wrong with it."

Waiting for access

Others wish they had access to the Adelaide rail network, problems or not.

The Seaford District Residents' Association has gathered more than 7,000 signatures on a petition calling for the Noarlunga line to be extended to Seaford by 2013 and to Aldinga by 2018.

Ron Jenkins, from the Association, says it needs to happen.

"The response at this stage is they will not extend, duplicate the [Southern] Expressway until Main South Road and Commercial Road are just about bumper to bumper on a full-time basis," he said.

"That is no good these days with the environment [concerns]. We want to get so many cars off the road and the railway line would be one way of doing that and getting people to and from work."

The SA Government plans to upgrade and electrify the Noarlunga line by 2014.

It has also committed about $34 million to buying land for a rail corridor to Aldinga, but has issued no timeframe on when a line would be built.

Mr Jenkins says the south is growing rapidly and the Federal Government's promise of bigger first home buyers' grants are likely to boost the south's population even further.

"We're getting 1,000 houses a year built down here. If we look at the average of 2.4 [people] per house, it's around about 25,000 people moving into the area every year," he said.

"Commercial Road and South Road are starting to get fairly clogged with traffic."

Treasurer Kevin Foley has foreshadowed the need to put some infrastructure projects on hold, but the Opposition insists that public transport must remain a funding priority.

"The Aussie dollar's dropping so rolling stock will become more expensive unless we actually build it here which I think is possible," Mr McFetridge said.

"We can build submarines and air warfare destroyers, why can't we build trams and trains?"

But the global financial uncertainty might have an upside for South Australia.

With the Federal Government reaching into its surplus in a bid to stimulate the economy, those wanting rail extensions and improvements could yet get what they want.